Finally, I'm Setting A Healthy Example

After years watching her sporty daughters from the sidelines, Rachel Lienerth is the role model she always wanted to be...

- Michelle Rawlings

As ruby and Jessie went through their kickboxing drills, it was almost like watching a dance routine. my daughters, then 11 and seven, had started practising the sport six months earlier, and I loved seeing them put so much skill and care into kicking and punching the air. But alongside my pride in my strong, beautiful girls,I felt sadness. I was the only parent sitting on a bench at the back of the hall.

All the others were joining in with their children. I knew there was no way I could keep up with my two – after all, I struggled to walk upstairs without panting for breath. I’d never been slim, but my struggles began in earnest not long after I started university when I began to feel extremely tired and unwell and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Determined to become a teacher, I used every bit of energy I had to study, which meant I was constantly exhausted – there was nothing left for any sort of exercise, and living with my parents, I ate very hearty meals.

After graduating I moved in with my boyfriend, Mark, and carried on eating as I always had. Teaching PE lessons was more of a struggle than ever. By the time Mark proposed, I was a size 18. A year after our wedding, I fell pregnant. I was a size 20 when Ruby was born. Three years later I had Jessie – I was so busy, slimming wasn’t on my radar.